Be Picky About Dinner Dates – If you’re trying to be healthy and your best friend doesn’t care and is still eating whatever, maybe schedule a few less dinner dates with them. It’s way easier to fall off the wagon if you see someone eat something you probably shouldn’t. However, if you have buddies who are just as health-conscious as you, go eat with them more often!

Mind Over Matter – This might be surprising to some, but your mentality when you’re exercising actually really does affect your results. If you’re just going through the motions of an exercise and not actually thinking and engaging all your muscles, then you won’t see the same results. Be aware of your muscles contracting and feeling stronger!

Mind Over Muscle – On the topic of making sure you’re mentally invested in the workout, you should really make sure that you’re not mentally exhausted. So like if you’re one of those people who go to gym after the work, you should know that if you’re mentally exhausted it can translate into being physically exhausted (even if you feel like you have lots of energy). This interesting study showed that when people played a difficult puzzle game before exercises, they said that the workout was harder than when they were doing the same type of workout after an easy game. Be conscious that you will have to fight against that!

Be Less Specific – Don’t set too specific goals or it will just be discouraging if you don’t reach it. For example, don’t say, “I will lose 10 pounds in 5 weeks.” Instead, go for losing 5-10 pounds so that when you lose 5 pounds, you give it the credit it deserves. This will encourage you to keep at it!

Harder, Better, FASTER, Stronger – If you’re training in snowy or rainy conditions, run faster and make your steps are shorter in between. Yes, the secret to not slipping is NOT slowing down! You should aim to have each foot to hit the ground at 90 times per minute.

Dig Deeper – Really, really think about why you want to get healthy and fit. It can be difficult to stay on track, and sometimes you need a deeper motivation than just getting into skinny jeans. Think about your health in the long run and how it will positively affect all your relationships if you do get healthy!

Don’t Download Too Many Apps – The best way to use an app to help with weight loss is either tracking your food intake or sharing your progress on your social media. Otherwise, most weight-loss apps, according to studies, aren’t that helpful. So don’t get too dependent on them!

Bet On Yourself – BUT there are some sites/apps that is basically about betting on how much weight you’ll lose. If you really need more incentive to get your best body, maybe add in a monetary element to it. If you don’t want to get a website/app, just make a bet with a friend. A study used two groups of people: one that didn’t deal with money, and one that got $20 per pound lost and lost $20 for every pound they gained. The no-cash people lost about 2 pounds but the money group lost an average of 9 pounds.

Look At The Time – Eat lunch before 3PM. According to a study, people who ate earlier lost 25% more weight than people who ate later (even though they ate the same amount and slept and exercised the same amount of time.

Prep Your Meals – It’s best to prepare for your upcoming day by prepping all your food in advance. Even just getting all the ingredients ready will make you more likely to cook it, for example. At least it does for me! This makes sure that you don’t skip a meal or go out and order some junk food.